Chris Phillips, the 35-year-old veteran defenceman who has played all of his 1,126 NHL games in an Ottawa sweater, on Wednesday inked a new two-year contract to remain with the club that drafted him first overall back in 1996.

That removed his name from the trading block, and some weight from his shoulders.

“With the uncertainty of this day, if nothing happened, (not knowing) what the alternatives were, that weighs on you,” said Phillips, who will earn an average of $2.5 million per season. “So I’m very excited to get something done.”

If everything goes according to plan, he’ll be the franchise’s all-time leader in games played, something he said would mean a lot to him.

“That would be an unbelievable honour, for me to be able to do that,” said Phillips, who after Wednesday night’s contest against the Calgary Flames trailed current leader Daniel Alfredsson by 52 games. “I’m very proud of the fact that I’ve been able to stay in Ottawa the entire time, and now two more years. So that’ll be a nice little, I guess, feather in the cap.”

Although the deal didn’t get done until around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday morning, there was a growing sense over the past few days that the sides could bridge their gap.

An agreement made sense for both parties. Phillips and his family have deep roots in the community and wanted to stay. The Senators, meanwhile, have a very young defence corps that could stand to have some veteran leadership around a bit longer.

But it wasn’t a slam-dunk by any means. Phillips wanted a multi-year deal, something the Senators weren’t keen on initially.

“There were issues, there are always issues when you do deals … you’re always going from one point, and he had another point of view, and it took some conversations, but today it didn’t take very long,” general manager Bryan Murray explained.

“I talked to (owner Eugene Melnyk) and made some points — we talked after the Vancouver game, Eugene and I — and came to an agreement that two years was certainly what we felt Chris can play, can contribute.

“And we like his veteran leadership, the type of person that he is, the fact that he really wanted to stay in Ottawa if he could, and I think that helped us a lot in getting to the price and getting to the term.”

With Phillips signed and a couple of young defencemen waiting for a big league shot, the Senators also bid farewell to Joe Corvo. He cleared waivers Wednesday and will be assigned to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. Corvo is from the area and the Senators didn’t need his services in Binghamton.